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Biography

Joanne Clarke joined the UEA in 2001. She is an archaeologist with extensive fieldwork experience in Cyprus, the Near East and North Africa. Joanne currently directs excavations at two prehistoric sites in Kalavasos, Cyprus and she jointly directs a programme of archaeological and environmental research in Western Sahara. Her principal research interest is human adaptation to, and exploitation of, rapid changes in climate and environment in the early and middle Holocene. Dr Clarke's foci of interest are the social changes that took place during the late Neolithic (the 8.2 Kyr event) and the Chalcolithic (the 5.9-5.1 Kyr event). Dr Clarke recently led a Research Network funded by the AHRC's Landscape and Environment Programme entitled Environmental Change in Prehistory.

Dr Clarke teaches both undergraduates and postragraduates archaeology, the archaeology of art, the archaeology of the ancient Near East and the Sahara. Dr Clarke also has a number of PhD students working on both African and Near Eastern topics.

Career History

Before joining the School of World Art Studies, Dr Clarke served as Jerusalem Director for the Council for British Research in the Levant, and Acting Director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. She has also worked for the National Museums Scotland, and held the JRB Stewart Fellowship in Cypriot Archaeology at the University of Sydney.

Key Research Interests

Human / environment interactions in prehistoric Cyprus

The archaeology and environment of Western Sahara

Human adaptations to climate change in prehistory

Marginal environments

Current Research Projects

1. The Kalavasos Prehistoric Project, Cyprus Excavations at Kalavasos Kokkinoyia and Pamboules began in 2003 as part of a wider research programme examining long-term cultural change in prehistoric Cyprus. Kokkinoyia and Pamboules are two contiguous sites that were occupied from the end of the Ceramic Neolithic until the end of the Late Chalcolithic periods and Pamboules is one of only two multi-period prehistoric sites on the island. Detailed examination of these sites through excavation will contribute to an understanding of two poorly understood transitions on the island, the transition from the Late Neolithic period to the Chalcolithic period, which was marked by climatic upheaval, and the transition from the Late Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age. More widely the documentation of these transitions will help toward understanding cultural changein early agricultural societies in general.

2. Western Sahara Project The Western Sahara Project aims to advance our understanding of the human past in a part of the Sahara in which very little research into archaeology and past environmental change has been carried out. The project aims to develop cultural and environmental chronologies and to understand how past human populations adapted to environmental changes throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. A particular focus of the research is the nature of environmental and cultural change in the middle Holocene, during the transition from humid to arid conditions in the Sahara. Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental findings are related to the wider North African context, and the work of the project provides an opportunity to compare archaeological and palaeoenvironmental results with data from the central and eastern Sahara. Given the relative humidity of the inland regions of Western Sahara today relative to similar latitudes further east (due to a combination of occasional rainfall generated by both monsoonal and Atlantic westerly weather systems), it is speculated that much of Western Sahara may have acted as such a refuge during the period of the Saharan desiccation. One of the objectives of the project is to test this hypothesis by examining trends in the archaeological record within a regional Saharan context.

3. Ceramic Studies I am trained in ceramic studies and have worked as a ceramics analyst on a number of field projects (listed below). My particular interest is how technology can elucidate cultural phenomena. A current theory is that cultural phenomena are embedded in everyday practices. A method by which we can explore cultural phenomena then is by studying these practices. Ceramic technology is an everyday practice that is heavily imbued with cultural meaning and therefore appropriate for this research approach.

Teaching Interests

Early agricultural societies in the Levant and Cyprus

The archaeology of the Sahara

The role of art, ritual and performance in prehistoric North Africa, Europe and the Near East

Research supervision

Interested in supervising research students in all areas of archaeological and material culture studies.